


Exigence

by Soleya



Series: Fifty First Dates [5]
Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-04
Updated: 2021-01-04
Packaged: 2021-03-14 03:40:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28538985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Soleya/pseuds/Soleya
Summary: Fifty First Dates.  But this one's at risk.
Relationships: Samantha "Sam" Carter/Jack O'Neill
Series: Fifty First Dates [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1707853
Comments: 28
Kudos: 75





	Exigence

Carter wasn’t at home.

She wasn’t at home; she wasn’t at Daniel’s – neither was Daniel – and she _definitely_ wasn’t at the fancy Italian place where she was supposed to be. Where Jack had made reservations for their first date. She wasn’t answering her phone, either.

Neither was Daniel. Or Teal’c.

Jack tried to look casual as he walked into the SGC. He’d ditched the blazer, leaving him in a plain black sweater and black pants that were probably causal enough to avoid too much suspicion. The world wasn’t ending; he would have been called at least a dozen times in the hour he’d been searching for her if it was. But _something_ was going on, obviously; the corridors were far to busy for 2030 on a Friday night. He’d meant to try her lab, but Jack detoured to the control room to find Sergeant Harriman and General Landry staring out at an open wormhole as personnel headed through, heavily laden with gear. “Hank.”

Walter and Landry both startled. And their faces, when they turned to him….

Something in his stomach roiled. “SG-1 wasn’t due to deploy today,” Jack managed.

“No,” Landry said. “They weren’t.” The silence stretched for mere seconds and an eternity before he said, “We should talk in my office.”

~/~

The view was incredible. The Stargate sat on a plateau only twenty-five or thirty feet in diameter, well above the rest of the flat landscape. Jack could see for miles in any direction. But all he could focus on was the SG team rigging up footings and motors along one edge. Daniel was with them, and he quickly excused himself to make his way over to Jack. “Sorry. I thought about coming back through to call you, but -”

“No. You needed to stay.” He couldn’t tear his eyes from the machinery at the edge, knowing what lay beyond. “What happened?”

“Sergeant Lafitte got tangled up in some sort of poisonous plant down there, and -”

“And the rest of SG-4 took a tumble trying to get him back up to the Gate. I know that much,” Jack interrupted. “You and SG-9 came to haul their asses home.”

“Yeah. And we did. SG-9 took them back through while we stayed to gather up their gear. And…. It was a fluke, Jack. It was a stupid accident.”

“What happened?” the older man repeated.

Clearly reticent, Daniel told him, “Mitchell lost his footing, and Sam grabbed for him. He recovered. She didn’t.”

Jack’s eyes slid back to the men at the ledge. “How is she?”

“We’re not sure. She had some feeling in her legs right after it happened, so -”

A concerned hand ran across his face. “So it’s not completely severed.”

“Right. But they don’t really know how much damage there is. Or how her body will react when they try to move her. That’s why we’re setting all of this up – to make the transit as fast and as smooth as possible. To minimize any further damage.”

Jack nodded. “Is she conscious?”

“Yeah.”

~/~

Any inkling to blame Cameron Mitchell disappeared the moment Jack spotted him. The Colonel sat on the ground five feet from the safety line Jack descended. His knees were pulled up a bit, his head hanging low in his hands. He looked absolutely devastated.

Carter’s body was sprawled fifteen feet beyond him, obscured by a group of engineers and the medical team that watched over her. She’d taken the fast route down a seventy-degree incline – eighty or ninety feet, at least – and it obviously hadn’t been easy. One arm was splinted, the other wrist in a brace. Her face was bloody. But the biggest problem by far was the fact that her shoulders lay flat against the ground, her head to the right while her hips turned almost fully left.

She’d had feeling after, Daniel had said. There was hope in that, and Jack clung to it.

And she was alive, he told himself. In the grand scheme, nothing else really mattered. She was alive.

She looked exhausted, pale and drawn, but she was alert enough to be answering questions from the medical staff as he approached. It was Teal’c, from his place kneeling near her head, who touched her cheek and told her gently, “O’Neill is here.”

She glanced over and spotted him. And then she looked away.

It had never occurred to Jack – to any of them, probably – that he should stay on Earth while she was injured on an alien planet, but maybe it should have. Because he saw the very instant she lost her composure, though her eyes squeezed shut to try and hide it. He wasn’t entirely sure why, but he knew his presence had been the proverbial straw that broke the camel.

Still, the damage was done. He could hardly turn tail and leave her there. Kneeling beside her, he laid a gentle hand on her upper arm and let his presence say what words couldn’t. He was there for her. Always. He’d promised her that, and he’d meant it.

A tear dripped off the bridge of her nose, then another. Her chest shuddered as she battled silent sobs until one of the doctors told her, “Try to take deep breaths, Colonel. I know it’s difficult, but you need to try to stay calm.”

Stay calm? Jack shot the woman a glare. Carter, though, took a careful breath and pulled herself together, forcing her body still. Finally, she spoke to him, though she didn’t open her eyes. “Sorry I stood you up.”

“Eh, this is a pretty good excuse,” he told her. “You know, you could’ve just said no, Carter. You didn’t have to fling yourself off a cliff to avoid going out with me.”

That earned a huff that was half a chuckle. “At least it was today, right?” she asked quietly, opening her eyes to stare at the clouds the other direction. “At least it wasn’t Monday. Tomorrow, even.”

Jack glanced at Teal’c, but the Jaffa seemed as confused by that as he was. “What do you mean?”

Her eyebrows bobbed. “Wouldn’t look very good to break up with the cripple.”

The words hit him with a physical jolt so hard he had to sit back on his heels. For a moment, all he could do was stare at her. Finally he managed, barely, “Is that supposed to be a joke?”

“No.” It was little more than a whisper. “You don’t owe me anything, sir. You should go back through the Gate.”

“And one date would have made a difference?” he pressed in disbelief. “You really think dinner would have changed anything?”

Her eyes squeezed shut again. “Please.”

“General, she really needs to stay -”

“Butt out,” Jack snapped at the doctor before turning his ire back to the woman on the ground. “Eight years, Carter. You damn well should know me better than that. Nothing is going to change how I feel about you. _Nothing_. Whatever happens, we’re gonna work through it together.”

He was being way too loud, and the personnel all around were desperately pretending not to hear, but Jack couldn’t care less. The implication that he would desert the woman he loved over a service injury was beyond infuriating.

Until she whispered through tears, broken, “You shouldn’t have to do that. You don’t need to stay. Please.”

No, she wasn’t afraid he would leave. She was afraid he would feel compelled to stay for the wrong reasons, and it broke his heart. Leaning down, he pressed his forehead to hers as he told her quietly, “I said always, and I meant that. We’re doing this, Carter.”

She shook her head.

“Yes, we are.” Rolling back on his heels, he asked the crowd around them, “Who’s got a protein bar or something?”

Nine or ten deer in the headlights stared back at him.

“Work with me, people,” he pressed, waving a hand between himself and the woman on the ground. “We’re having dinner here.”

The doctor shook her head. “I really don’t want her to -”

“I told you to _butt out_.”

“Uh… blueberry almond, sir,” Sergeant Dawes offered, holding out a small wrapped bar.

“Thank you.” He hated blueberries, but it didn’t matter. Ripping back the plastic, Jack bit off a huge chunk and held the rest to Sam’s closed lips. “Eat it, Carter.”

“Sir -”

“ _A nibble won’t kill her_ ,” he snapped at the doctor. “No take backs, Carter. You promised me dinner. Eat it.”

Her eyes didn’t open. But her lips parted, and she took the tiniest bite.

“Who’s got dessert?” Jack asked.

“Chocolate?” Airman Hayes offered.

“Dark?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Perfect.” Just as before, Jack took the first bite and held the rest out to Carter. The doctor was smart enough to keep her mouth shut that time as her patient ate just a tiny bit. “There,” Jack announced. “First date over; you’re stuck with me now. Wait, I forgot something.” Tenderly putting a hand to her cheek, he bent down and pressed his lips to hers. It took a moment, but she returned the sentiment.

“Hey,” he prompted softly, and when she opened her eyes, he told her, “now you have to fight for me. Because I love you.”

Unable to speak, she nodded.

“We’re ready,” Colonel Edwards announced.

“Fight like hell,” Jack told her.

“I will,” she whispered.

Pressing one last kiss to her forehead, Jack got to his feet. “Let’s do this.”

~/~

The other three members of SG-1 stayed in the infirmary just long enough to watch their teammate’s eyes open. And then they left Jack to it, with Daniel offering him a supportive pat on the shoulder on his way out.

Jack parked himself on the edge of the bed and waited patiently until her eyes focused and took in the infirmary around her, then him. Then he greeted, “Hey, drama queen.”

“Mmm,” she murmured, and he couldn’t tell if that was acknowledgment or a question. “They moving?”

He glanced down to see her toes twitch. Just a bit, but enough. “Yeah.”

“I don’t…. What happened?” she breathed.

“You had feeling when you first went over because your spinal cord was intact,” he told her. “Then everything around it started to swell up and choke it. The swelling’s going down. So you’re getting better.”

She considered that for a moment and murmured, “Pins ‘n needles.”

“The doc said to expect some of that. It’s gonna take time to heal up completely. And probably some PT. But they don’t think there’s gonna be any permanent damage.”

Her eyelids fluttered as the tears sprung up behind them. “Really?”

“Really. So no more crying.” Bracing himself on the mattress to avoid putting any weight on her, Jack leaned down and tenderly kissed her forehead. “You’ll be happy to know that I have the meal plans for our next several dates all figured out. Second date: chicken broth. Third date: mashed potatoes with boxed gravy. Given the circumstances, I’m willing to forgo the third date rule, even though you _will_ be flat on your back.”

An exhausted smile spread across her face.

“And when you’re well enough, I know this great Italian place.” Her right wrist was splinted, but he tangled his fingers lovingly in hers. “I was supposed to take a girl there once, but she was kinda busy.”

“She missed out,” Carter breathed.

“Mm, I don’t think she should worry too much. She’ll get another chance.” This time, he pressed his lips to hers. “I love you. Always.”

One corner of her mouth turned up just before she fell back asleep.


End file.
